MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man has died after a barricade situation in Cordova early Thursday morning, deputies say.
The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were on an active barricade scene after executing a search warrant on the 1400 block of Hidden Ridge Lane just before 2 a.m.
The sheriff’s office later said Joe Wilhite, 36, was being served a warrant at the home for murder by the SCSO Fugitive Apprehension Team and US Marshals.
WREG previously reported that Wilhite was wanted after police say he shot his girlfriend at their Westwood home after an argument. She later died at the hospital.
During the barricade incident, a single gunshot was fired from inside the residence which led SWAT and negotiators to come to the scene.
SCSO says investigators entered the residence at approximately 4 a.m. when they located one person dead.
According to the sheriff’s office, preliminary reports indicate Wilhite died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The incident lasted for about two and a half hours.
Mario Dotson lives across the street from where the standoff took place.
“That’s what we did. We just waited to see how it was going to develop,” Dotson said.
Residents who live nearby said authorities asked everyone in the immediate area to leave their home or move to the back of it during the standoff.
“They were trying to communicate the whole time with whoever was in the home,” Dotson said.
Neighbors who live across the street were pretty unnerved, saying the area is usually quiet.
“It’s a friendly street everybody knows each other. We wave and it’s just friendly,” neighbor Connie Jackson said.
But neighbors said the people who live in the home moved in a few months ago and have been standoffish.
“As a matter of fact, we don’t know their names,” Dotson said, which left neighbors even more disturbed by the Thursday morning events.
The sheriff’s said this is an ongoing investigation.
